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Terry Hooper-Scharf
Why aren't Janus Stark, Kelly's Eye, Billy's Boots et al being reprinted in the UK ? There's a treasure trove of stuff there begging to be repackaged ( Alan Class style ) and sold to the youngsters who might enjoy it ! These are 'evergreens' in that - though they might age - they still retain a freshness of thought and style that never really goes out of fashion.... ah... maybe that is the true meaning of 'vintage'... not the comic itself but the ideas and art that goes into it. I do often feel that the buyers and sellers of comics forget what a comic is - it is a piece of pop art that either hits it's cultural mark ( like the Biggles books ) and become synonymous with a certain age... or they transcend their particular cultural niche and become either 'vintage' or 'trashy waste paper'.
ReplyDeleteI think that the penny dreadfuls are a particularly good example of this. Few lasted beyond their era - sci-fi on the other hand..... well. Anyway, gotta go work.
Well, for one thing there have been some reprints when the ill fated (but drawn well by Shane Oakley and George Freeman) Albion came out years back. King Of Crooks -The Spider, The Steel Claw and a selection book but apparently not much interest. IPCs top person -its CEO- told me it had been out of comics and so on for over 30 years -that would now be 36 years. Fleetway were bought out by Egmont that have no interest in comics -just merchandise mags with a toy or whatever attached (anything comic like is a pure accident). I checked with both companies as well as HM Copyright Office (THE authority on these matters) and the characters are out of copyright -only the very basic of copyright existed (printing a comic). Strips they own because of work for hire are theirs but they don't use them. The characters...no ones. If you read a weekly comic you would now be in your 40s or 50s -it was that long ago. No interest because they have no one who knows anything about comics now. Pity but there it is.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere on most of my blogs is Annual Copyright notice or Legal Notice. Explains it all.
ReplyDelete